As a new American administration takes office during the most severe economic crisis since the Great Depression, everyone is understandably fixated on the present emergency — on what went wrong and how to fix it. There is a growing feeling of desperation, the idea that we must do something — anything — to get the world’s economic juices flowing again.

Let me offer a different point of view: We shouldn’t undertake projects simply for the sake of creating economic activity. Rather than just stimulate, we should transform.

Let’s seize this opportunity to create more and better jobs, cultivate valuable skills, and not simply repair but prepare our economy for the 21st century. The best news of all is that investing in innovation will cost less and yield faster results than investing in renovation.